The use of a safe, complete, and environmentally benign process is useful in the disposal of chemical weapons (CW) stockpile. The conventional method of disposal uses incineration technology. However, conventional incineration technology faces legal, social, and political obstacles.
The conventional incineration process produces a large volume of off gas, which is further treated with pollution abatement equipment such as a quench tower, a scrubber, a demister, and a baghouse for particulate removal. Hence, incineration plants are not suitable for mobile units. Additionally, incineration plants are typically housed in a building such as a facility relatively close to the stockpile, creating inherent risks for personnel who work at the facility. Alternatively, dangerous stockpile chemicals are transported from the stockpile to the incineration facility, creating risks related to potential transportation accidents.
As a result of the incineration process, harmful dioxins are produced due to poor mixing and short residence time at the operating temperature, as well as prolonged exposure at temperatures that favor the formation of dioxins. The production of dioxins presents a major environmental challenge.
Neutralization is an alternative technology for the destruction of toxic chemicals. However, the neutralization process has been abandoned by the U.S. Army due to its complexity, more problematic waste produced by the process, cost, and analytical problems in certifying the treated waste as agent-free.
Conventional plasma arc technology has also been evaluated for the destruction of such waste. Using conventional plasma arc technology, waste is atomized in a high temperature (e.g., 5,000° C. to 15,000° C.) pyrolysis chamber. The resulting gases are scrubbed and combusted with air. While this process is amenable to a transportable unit, the primary limitation is that high temperature requires high power input and forms undesirable products, as explained above.